I was married at GS on November 25 and the day couldnâ€™t have gone more perfectly. The WCs are excellent; they were there to make sure the day went exactly as planned. I didnâ€™t decide until almost the last minute to get my hair and makeup done at the spa but I am SO glad that I did! Both hair and makeup turned out perfect!

Flowers were beautiful, they took care of getting flower petals for my 2 flower girls as well - my poor little ring bearer is only 18 months though and wouldnâ€™t walk down the aisle!! He sat down in the middle of it and cried instead! Oh well, he still looked adorable!

We brought our own photographer who was amazing, the resort photographer was ok, and we did get some ok shots from her. If I could offer one piece of advice though - she was quite pushy with our photographer and was trying to take over the show which was kind of preventing my hired photographer from getting some of her shots. Make sure she knows who is running the show!

We had to end our photos a little early and got under the palapa just in time because it started to pour... thankfully it wasnâ€™t during the ceremony though and it didnâ€™t last long. All the waiters and bartenders were great; we have no complaints about any of the staff

We had to leave the palapa at 10 and I didnâ€™t realize that the disco didnâ€™t open until 11pm because we were planning on going right there afterwards. So after going to the lobby bar, we never ended up even making it back to the disco.

The WC took care of everything for us - they helped us get some of our favors ready and set up all of them on the tables, and all of the fans we had for people on the chairs for the ceremony. They were very accommodating with everything we asked for.

We did a trash the dress session the next day which was amazing!!!! If you are on the fence not sure if you want to do it or not, I say go for it!! It was one of the best experiences Iâ€™ve ever had! I got a different dress because I actually got married in the dress that my nonna made for my mom that she wore on her wedding day (with a few minor alterations), but the dress I swam in was $100 off the rack! It was so much fun! The pictures that weâ€™ve seen of it so far have turned out amazing!!

If you have any other questions just ask... like so many other on here, I was so thankful to have this forum while planning my wedding, Iâ€™m happy to return the favor!

Hi ladies, I just wanted to share a couple of things: First, thanks Diana for your honest and informative review. It was so nice to wake up this morning and read it! The majority of reviews I have read about the resort photographer have NOT been positive. We have been trying to figure out if/how to approach this with the resort when we arrive. It was important to me to get the opinion of our own photographer that we are bringing on to the resort...and here is what she had to say in response to my e-mail this morning, Hi "J",You are so nice to consult us on this an I am very glad you did! This is one of the cases where definetley less is more . The resort photographers do usually get in the way quite a bit and it is hard to take pictures from a reasonable distance without having them in the shot, they tend to get really close to the bride and groom during the ceremony due to lack of proper equipment, this also makes us have to get a lot closer than we would like. We prefer to maintain a respectful distance so that the guests can fully appreciate the ceremony.We would definitely recommend trying to allocate the resprt photographer services to a different time of your trip if possible (as you say it is their job) but maybe instead of photographing the ceremony, he/she could photograph the guests during the cocktail hour or maybe even the evening before if you will be having dinner with your group , at the pool with your guests, anything really I hope this is helpful!! We look forward to meeting you in a couple weeks!! Please let me know if I can be of help at all. Thanks again,"L"

Secondly, if this helps anyone else, a lovely woman who returned from the GS last week gave me the following response online to a question about larger a la carte bookings:

Hi "J"

We just came back last wk from Grand Sirenis and there was no issues with booking a group! Just be sure your concierge knows the amount of ppl when booking and they give you a "receipt" that you need to bring with you..

Have fun! Cath:)

So, I'm assuming as long as space is available, larger group bookings (e.g., my FMIL wants to have a dinner out with her siblings and their spouses) are fairly easy to do.

And when I asked her if she was there for a wedding and/or what she thought of my concerns about some of our overly picky relatives, this is what she said:

We were there as a family, NO issues what so ever...(just a tip, if you tip your concierge 20-40 right off the bat~you will have 10star service.. WE didnt think it was too much too ask, and we got 10star service, with extra a la carte) shhhhhh.... As for the wedding situation It is so beautiful, and the grounds are so well manicured!! Beauty for weddings We did see 3 weddings go on, lobby, beach etc the wk we were there, and ALL were beautiful ))) The photographer if you got the one from GS is AMAZING he is the same photographer that does the animal beach shots (monkey, parrots, etc) Wonderful personailty and great talent... You wont be disappointed!!! As for 30 guest and a wedding, my dear relax everything will work out, and you will have beautiful memories, with amazing senary to cherish forever!

Good luck... You will have to keep me posted, and would love to see your pics!!

p.s.- Im Italian and everything had to be 200% with over 200 guest when I got married so trust me when I say you should have no issues and you will be pleased with everything from photographer, to scenary, to chapel, to beach setting, to FOOD!!

Does anyone know if there are additional charges for having the resort put up the decorations I will be bringing? I'm taking about 60 paper lanterns for the palapa and I'm hoping they won't charge me an outrageous amount for hanging them.

I think that if you bring few they don't charge you but you need to take them off . However , It might be a good idea to double check with your WC because you are bringing a lot. I think that it is an amazing idea, hopefully you can let is know how that looked the day of the wedding and it will be great to see pictures. Can you share where did you buy the lanterns? on-line?.